All-Terrain Track Chairs Benefit Those With Disabilities

Updated:
Friday, April 21, 2017 6:07 PM EDT

VERNON COUNTY, MISSOURI -

The Missouri Department of Conservation purchased 9 all-terrain track chairs using grant money. Those chairs make it a little bit easier for people with disabilities to participate in outdoor activities.

Even with overcast skies, fishing is relaxing for many, including Scott Hettinger. But being wheel chair bound doesn't always allow him to do everything he would like, until he was gifted with a "track chair."

“It just allows you to get to places that you normally can't in a normal wheel chair. The chair that I use every single day doesn't go places that this chair can go,” says Hettinger, a Webb City resident.

This chair doesn't have standard wheels but treads similar to military tank, making it possible to go just about anywhere.

“If you can't get there in that chair, you probably shouldn't be there to begin with. But it allows you to go through water, it goes through mud, it goes through sand, it goes through rocks or gravel, tall grass, short grass, wet grass fields timber where ever,” says Hettinger.

His chair is similar to the ones that the Missouri Department of Conservation loans out to organizations that provide services to people with disabilities. Peterson Outdoor Ministries utilizes the chairs for their fishing and hunting retreats.

“After an injury or some type of illness, they want to get out and be able to do what other people do, especially in the outdoors, hunting and fishing, so the track chairs allow them to be able to be mobile to find the self-worth to be able to go and do things that they might not have otherwise been able to,” says Tron Peterson.

Working with that organization, Hettinger has loaned his personal track chair to disabled veterans for therapeutic hunting and fishing trips.

“It just allows people to go do things together and gets somebody that’s disabled out in some place with somebody that's not disabled, where they're able to go and do the same things together,” he adds.

Each chair costs about $11,000. For those who would like to try out the chairs, contact the Springfield Conservation Office at (417) 742-4361.

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